


The Last Poem

by tigriswolf



Series: poetry [123]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heartbreak, Poetry, Symbolism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 18:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18155735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: The last poem died today.





	The Last Poem

**Author's Note:**

> Begun March 24, 2011  
> Finished November 22, 2018

The last poem died today.  
I buried it beneath the oak—  
you know the one, you planted it  
ages and ages ago  
when poetry was young.

The poem, the very last of all,  
it told me your secrets.  
It whispered about the  
ocean’s depths and the height of the sky.  
I listened in wonder of  
the old poem’s tale.  
I’d never heard words like that before.  
The poem sounded like you, my dear,  
how you sang before you left here.

You never sang for me.  
I listened through the wall,  
catching what words I could.  
I still have some, hidden behind the wallpaper.  
I kept them, just in case.  
You never came back for them, though,  
just like you never came back for me.

The oak tree is dying.  
Soon enough, I’ll have to cut it down  
or it might fall on the house.  
What will happen to the bones  
of the last poem then?

With the tree gone,  
how will I remember your song?  
Everything here grows old.  
If I can’t remember your song,  
Will you have ever sung at all?

The last poem died today.  
I buried it with all the rest,  
the memories you left behind when you left. 

I dream, sometimes, that the bones sprout,  
that from sorrow hope grows.  
That perhaps, somewhere in the world,  
more songs and poems are born.  
I dream—

But I buried the last poem just yesterday,  
beneath a dying oak.


End file.
